P17-M ‘bridge of peace’ to rise in Mamasapano

MANILA, Philippines - The government will replace the wooden footbridge used by police commandos to get to their target in Mamasapano, Maguindanao with a “bridge of peace” made of concrete and steel.

The project “will symbolize our relentless quest for peace in Mindanao, for which we have paid a very high price,” Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) told The STAR yesterday.

“We have set aside P17 million from our savings to replace the dilapidated wooden bridge in Mamasapano with a concrete-and-steel structure. We are breaking ground for the project in a few days,” he said.

Out of the P17 million, Hataman said P7 million would be allocated for the new bridge measuring about 80-90 meters in length, and P10 million would be used for concreting a one-kilometer access road from the main highway in Mamasapano.

The project “will also symbolize government efforts to bring progress and development to Mindanao,” he said.

He pointed out that several communities, including Barangays Tukanalipao and Pidsandawan, would benefit from the new bridge.

“It would make it easier for people to transport their corn and other agricultural products to the town proper and other markets,” he added.

He stressed that the war in Mindanao has resulted in hundreds of lives lost on the part of government and Muslim secessionists, in billions of pesos spent for guns and ammunition and in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents.

“There is also the cost in terms of missed opportunities for economic development,” Hatman said.

Tukanalipao and Pidsandawan were the site of clashes on Jan. 25 between guerillas belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its breakaway faction, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), on one hand, and troopers of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF), on the other.

SAF lost 44 men. Eighteen Muslim guerillas, mostly belonging to the MILF, and at least five civilians also died in the fighting.

A 38-man SAF assault team killed their principal target – suspected Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bir Hir, alias Marwan – in his hideout in Pidsandawan. However, nine team members were killed in daylong firefights with BIFF guerillas.

Two other targets – Amin Baco, another suspected Malaysian terrorist, and Marwan’s Filipino deputy Abdul Basit Usman – escaped.

Another SAF team, composed of 36 members, was to serve as blocking force. It was nearly wiped out, save for one survivor, in an eight-hour gun battle with MILF’s 105th base command.

In her investigation report, Sen. Grace Poe said MILF fighters and other armed civilians “massacred” the SAF blocking force in the cornfield across the footbridge in Barangay Tukanalipao.

She said the Muslim guerillas started the gun battle.

The MILF claims its fighters acted only in self-defense.

Based on the account of the lone survivor, his comrades fell in battle between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Jan. 25.

Thirty members of the assault team survived the skirmishes with the BIFF, though one died later in the hospital. A composite team of Army soldiers and SAF troopers rescued them at about 11:30 p.m., more than 19 hours after they killed Marwan.

Promoting political stability

Meanwhile, a German-assisted peace-advocacy outfit and the provincial government of Maguindanao agreed on Friday to jointly promote political stability in the province in support of the Bangsamoro peace initiative.

Benedicto Bacani, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), and Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu sealed with a handshake a deal to help each other implement in Maguindanao the project, “Promoting Political Climate and Stability for Peace in the Bangsamoro.”

Launched last Feb. 1, the new peace-advocacy venture, also covering other areas in the ARMM, is bankrolled by the Australian government.

The IAG, a known political think tank, is an institutional partner of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, a benefactor of various programs complementing the Mindanao peace process.

The IAG’s Australian-funded political intervention for peace and stability in the Bangsamoro area is supported by three other peace-advocacy organizations, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID), the Local Government Development Foundation and the Zamboanga-Basilan Integrated Development Alliance (Zabida).

The main goal of the project is to enlist the active participation of local government units and political leaders in a continuing debate on concepts of viable autonomy and efficient governance in a broader, inclusive Mindanao peace perspective.

“This will be a strictly non-partisan engagement among political leaders and the organizations pushing the project forward,” Bacani told Mangudadatu in a meeting at the governor’s office in Buluan town in Maguindanao last Friday.

Bacani said the project aims to facilitate discussions on the intricacies of the Local Government Code as a capacity-building initiative meant to improve the leadership proficiency of political leaders in the Bangsamoro area.

Also present in the meeting of Bacani and Mangudadatu were Salma Rasul and Bandrazel Birowa, representing the PCID and the Zabida, respectively, political analyst Edmund Tayao, and IAG’s Reydan Lacson.

Mangudadatu said the provincial government will participate actively in the implementation of the project in the province, which has 36 towns, all known bastions of the MILF.

“My office and all of its constituent-municipal governments will not hesitate to support anything good for the people of Maguindanao in the same way we support wholeheartedly all undertakings that can bolster the Mindanao peace process,” Mangudadatu said.

Bacani said among the objectives of the project is to facilitate discussions among members of the inter-agency Maguindanao provincial peace and order council, the ramifications and relevance of normalization processes benefiting Moro communities.

The project also aims to facilitate “roundtable dialogues” among stakeholders on vital issues such as the peace process, governance and other domestic socio-political and security issues.

Mangudadatu said the provincial government has actively been involved in local normalization thrusts since he was first elected to office in 2010. The governor was re-elected to a second term during the 2013 local elections.

Mangudadatu said one of his several ongoing “pro-people projects” involving the Moro, Christian and Lumad sectors in the province, meant to hasten the restoration of normalcy in conflict-wracked areas, is the Maguindanao Program for Educational Assistance and Community Empowerment (MagPEACE).

Mangudadatu said MagPEACE pays for the schooling of more than 4,000 college students, mostly children of poor peasants and members of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front.

“I know we also have some scholars who are either children or relatives of members of the BIFF. We don’t discriminate in allowing qualified students to avail of MagPEACE support. If these children will become professionals, they will certainly become peace advocates too,” he said.